A US Air Force AC-130 gunship unleashed its awesome power against an al Qaeda stronghold in Somalia on Jan. 7, confirmed Pentagon officials Tuesday after the new made headlines around the world. The strike targeted “what we believe to be...

US Air Force fighters and bombers unloaded precision weapons against an insurgent stronghold south of Balad Ruz, Iraq, on Jan. 8. The strike force—F-15E, F-16, and B-1B aircraft—hit 25 targets, including buildings, equipment, weapons caches, and enemy personnel. Lt. Gen....

Military modernization “in some areas” has been “clearly underfunded” to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, new Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told Washington-based defense reporters Tuesday morning. He wants to change that by raising...

Sen. Carl Levin told defense reporters Tuesday that the Air Force has two selling jobs to do with the new Congress. The new head of the Armed Services Committee said one job is to “persuade us that there’s real competition”...

The three airmen killed Jan. 7 by an improvised explosive device in the Baghdad area were TSgt. Timothy R. Weiner, 35, of Tamarac, Fla.; SrA. Elizabeth A. Loncki, 23, of New Castle, Del.; and SrA. Daniel B. Miller Jr., 24,...

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told defense reporters in Washington Tuesday he thinks President Bush, in his address to the nation tonight, will characterize the new war on terror policy as a “change in course.” The senator...

Sen. Carl Levin, the new head of the Armed Services Committee, told defense reporters Tuesday that he would support a short-term surge of US military forces in Iraq, if it is preceded by a specific plan complete with milestones and...

In a Jan. 8 bipartisan forum led by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), House Armed Services Committee chairman, called for the “Iraqis to chart their own course.” Skelton wants any US force surge to have “an overarching goal of redeployment.” The...

A majority of Americans do not like the idea of a military surge, according to a new Gallup Poll. The survey found that 61 percent of those polled oppose any increase in the number of US forces in Iraq, despite...

The Central Intelligence Agency has co-opted the Air Force to try to reclaim the A-12 Blackbird restored by the Minnesota Air National Guard Museum near the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The CIA now wants to display the...

Two airmen at the Contingency Operating Location Bilate, in Ethiopia, are the only Air Force members at the training facility where their assignment is to keep critical communications running between the remote, predominantly Army camp and the Combined Joint Task...

NASA union employees want Congress to include language in Fiscal 2007 agency appropriations that will forbid layoffs—and to pay for the next generation manned spaceship, reports Government Executive. In a letter to key Senate and House Democrats, NASA also proposed...

Jan. 8, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 11 5 16 CAS/Armed Recon 20 30 50 Airlift 110 110 Air refueling 29 29 Total 31 35 139 205 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance